Athens, National Archaeological Museum

Q637187

That was not very clever: visiting the National Archaeological Museum on the last day of a two week trip through northern and central Greece. Of course, it was a nice summary of everything we’ve seen, but I think it would have been better to start over here. Ever a teacher, I might have used the museum’s splendid collection of sculpture to explain to my companions the development of Greek art.

That’s what you’ll find on the first floor: lots of sculpture in a series of rooms surrounding a large hall, which is devoted to Mycenaean art. There, you will find the golden objects from Mycenae that Schliemann found. The sculpture rooms surround it. Your tour starts with some kouroi and you can easily follow the growth to greater accuracy in representing the human body. When you’ve finished about a third of your tour, the Greek sculptors have mastered every aspect of anatomy, and you will pass along many classical sculptures, including two dazzling copies of the Diadumenus and the Cnidian Aphrodite. After that, more sculpture: the fourth century, Hellenism, and finally the Roman age.

On the ground floor, there’s also a series of rooms that contain metal art. Here, you will see the Anticythera Mechanism, but also collections of arrowheads from Marathon and Thermopylae. The Egyptian part – also on the ground floor – is a bit odd in a museum dedicated to Greek art, but the collection is too small to be exposed in a museum of its own and too important to keep stored away. In the Hellenistic part of the Egyptian collection, I noticed a statue of Hephaestion that I had never seen before.

Upstairs, you will find a marvelous collection of pottery and some objects that don’t fit anywhere else, like the Lemnian inscription, written in a language related to Etruscan. Next to it is a section dedicated to the investigations at Santorini, where some splendid frescoes have been found.

Do not forget to visit the basement. There’s a little café with a garden, where you will see some of the sculptures found in the Anticythera wreck. They have a certain beauty because they are partly eroded. I found the giant Heracles absolutely fascinating.

This museum was visited in 1989, 1992, 2004, 2007, 2010.

76 pictures related to this museum

Argos, Relief of the Doryphorus of Polykleitos	Lycian portrait of Omphale	Epidauros, Temple of Artemis, Nike	Nysa, Bouleuterion, "Little Refugee"
Akrotiri, Building B, Room B1, Wall painting of antelopes	Piraeus, Funerary stela with ball players	Marathon, Arrowheads	Akrotiri, Building B, Room B1, Wall painting of boxers
Sparta, Statue of Julia Aquilia Severa, damaged after her death	Argos, Heraion, West pediment, Head of Hera	Eleusis, Relief of Demeter, Triptolemus, and Kore	Argos, Heraion, West pediment, Palladion
Athens, Agora, Late Geometric pyxis	Piraeus, Votive stela of a reclining Dionysus	Athens, Kerameikos, Dipylon krater	Megara, Statue of a Roman emperor (Trajan or Hadrian)
Smyrna, Portrait of Caligula, reworked to resemble Titus	Athens, Statue of a Minotaur	Athens, Stoa of Attalus, Attalus II Philadelphus	Piraeus, Statue of a woman or Demeter
Megiste, Bellerophon sarcophagus.	Larisa, Tombstone of Polyxena	Thermopylae, Arrowheads	Corinth, Plate with Demeter
Lebadeia, Relief of Trophonius	Eretria, Gymnasium, Statue of Cleonicus	Zeus and Ganymedes	Lemnos, Tombstone of an Etruscan (?) warrior
The fight for the body of Patroclus.	Athens, Kerameikos, Siren	Eleusis, Tombstone of a warrior	Chalcis-Vromousa, Head of a woman (Roman copy of a Greek original)
Oropos, Aeolian-Ionic capital	Corinth, Relief of a hoplite	Melos, Statue of Poseidon	Sais, Temple of Neith, Statuette
Eleusis, Relief of a drunk Heracles	Mycene, Dagger with lion hunt	Mycene, Wall painting ("La Parisienne")	Athens, Kerameikos, Alexander with a Lion's Pelt
Piraeus, Funerary stela of Damasistrate	Thebes (?), Block statue of Prince Horwedja, governor and high priest in Heliopolis	Aegina, Ptolemy VI Philometor	Athens, Varvakeion Athena
Mycene, House of the Warrior Krater, Warrior Krater	Olympia, Head of the boxer Satyros	Athens, Kerameikos, Skull of Myrthis	Alexandria, Alexander the Great (part of a group with Hephaestion)
Athens, Temple of Zeus, Portrait of Polemo of Laodicea	Piraeus, Julian the Apostate	Gomphoi, Relief of Odysseus and Amphicleia	Argos, Theater, Statue of Aphrodite
Eretria, Lekythos (Bosanquet Painter)	Eleusis, Temple F, Cecrops and Herse	Megara, Statue of Dionysus	Argos, Heraion, Amazonomachy
Eucratides II of Bactria	Aegina, Tombstone of a young man, holding a bird	Argos, Heraion, Sima	Lead figurine of Athena
Piraeus, Theater, Head of Dionysus (classicizing)	Pharsalus, Krater with a four-horse chariot	Alexandria, Hephaestion (part of a group with Alexander)	Dodona, Figurine of Zeus Keraunos
Decree of Tefnakht	Aegina, Temple of Apollo, Statue of a wounded warrior	Hellenistic ruler	Athens, Kerameikos, Base of the statue of a wrestler
Athens, Pnyx, Lenormant Athena	Mycene, Boar's tusk helmet	Piraeus, Head of a bearded god	Thebes, Head of Artemis
Larisa, Tombstone of a man with a hat	Artemisium, Statue of Zeus	Thebes, Tombstone	Mycene, Wall painting of a griffin with a warrior